In response to the need to increase access to testing during the COVID-19 pandemic, recent federal legislation, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act,1 amended by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act,2 creates a new optional Medicaid eligibility pathway, with 100% federal matching funds, for states to cover coronavirus testing and testing-related services for uninsured individuals. This new option is available from March 18, 2020 through the end of the public health emergency period. The HHS Secretary declared COVID-19 a nationwide public health emergency on January 31, 2020, retroactive to January 27, 2020.

As the global coronavirus outbreak and its economic fallout tighten their grip on the United States, all signs point to a spike in demand for Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans that is jointly funded by states and the federal government.

Supporters of Medicaid work requirements are building their defenses as the coronavirus takes its toll on the economy, even though such rules have consistently failed to survive in court. Four states now have seen their requirements that Medicaid enrollees find work struck down, Bloomberg Law data show. Several states have voluntarily dropped or suspended requirements. Utah is the only state that’s suspended its rules because of the pandemic.

President Donald Trump said he wouldn’t touch Medicare before pitching a budget plan that would do exactly that, along with steep cuts to Medicaid. Democrats are calling it “savage” and “heartless,” while administration officials are insisting they are only slowing explosive growth in future years and that current Medicare benefits would remain untouched.

Southern U.S. states that expanded Medicaid “experienced lower rates of physical and mental health declines” than nearby regions that didn’t expand health benefits for poor Americans, a new analysis shows in Health Affairs shows.